IBM shoots for 22nm processor, bragging rights
IBM and others have already boasted about their plans to develop sub-32nm processors, but it now looks like Big Blue is aiming to blow past its competitors in a pretty big way by taking things all the way down to the 22-nanometer level. That rather significant leap is apparently possible thanks to a new technique that IBM developed with Mentor Graphics and Toppan Printing dubbed Computational Scaling, which employs some new mathematical techniques and other head-scratching measures to overcome the current limitations associated with etching circuits onto processors of this scale. While it of course sees the 22nm processors being used in even smaller laptops and an array of other devices, IBM seems to be especially interested in using the chips in its cloud computing initiatives, where it seems to think the chips' greater efficiency could make a particularly big impact. As you might have guessed, however, it's not yet clear exactly when that might happen.
[Via DailyTech]
